Doctors shine light on concussions in Scottsdale symposium

Sept. 29, 2012 - Concussion experts Dr. David Dodick, of the Mayo Clinic, left, and Dr. Ann McKee, of the National Football League Player's Association talk with azcentral sports columnist Paola Boivin at the Mayo Clinic.

Three days ago, Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. David Dodick met with an NHL player who had suffered at least five concussions. The athlete said his wife no longer asked him to bring things from the upstairs of his house to her.

“I come downstairs a minute later, and I don’t have it with me,” he told the director of the clinic’s concussion program. “I don’t remember.”

Memory impairment was one of many topics covered at the Mayo Clinic Symposium on Concussion in Sport held Friday and Saturday in Scottsdale. The event attracted many of the field’s foremost experts, including medical representatives from several professional leagues and a highly regarded doctor who has performed autopsies on some of the sports world’s more-concussed brains.

In an exclusive interview with azcentral sports, these experts shared their hopes and concerns about the most important issue facing sports today, one that is impacting athletes at every level, from pee-wee football to professional hockey.

It is not an issue for the faint of heart.

Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon, 53, appeared on a recent cover of Sports Illustrated, and inside the magazine he discusses battling early onset dementia, a product, he believes, of repetitive concussions.

Two years ago, his former Chicago Bears teammate, Dave Duerson, committed suicide. A postmortem investigation found he was suffering from advanced neurodegenerative disease related to concussions.

The scrutiny about this topic is greatest in the NFL, where collisions are violent. Approximately 3,400 former players have sued the league.

Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, a member of the NFL’s head, neck and spine safety committee who is nationally recognized for his concussion research, said the league is taking the issue seriously and believes “player safety will ultimately be (Commissioner) Roger Goodell’s legacy.”

“He has put a lot of time and effort and money into this,” Guskiewicz said. “I’m convinced that’s at the forefront, even though some will argue the replacement refs didn’t help. I have a chance to sit at the table and hear the concerns that are raised, reviewing video footage of things that need to be fixed and how are we going to fix it.”

Guskiewicz pointed to the changes in a rule instituted before the 2011 season that moved kickoffs up to the 35-yard line in an attempt to de-emphasize kick returns, which often lead to violent collisions. Concussions during kickoffs dropped 42 percent from 2010 to 2011, he said.

All sports are being aided by the research of Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University who has performed postmortem research on the brains of NFL players.

“I had a woman come in about a month ago,” McKee said. “Her father was an NFL player and she was the last child. She said, ‘You finally explained to me why my dad was always like that, why he never paid any attention to me.’ A little moment like that is where you have a real sense of satisfaction or validation.”

McKee and others agreed the value of the symposium was being able to pass information on to those who are being asked to make vital decisions about athletes’ safety.

“We have legislation out there that requires a health-care provider to pass these athletes to go back to play and none of them have been trained,” Dodick said. “This has become a major public health concern.”

Several were skeptical about anti-concussion sports equipment marketed to families, like a chin strap that lights up to indicate a player has a concussion or a mouth guard which is promoted to create “brain safety space.”

In the youth soccer world, many use a popular headband that promises to reduce the chance of concussion by 50 percent.

“The important thing for parents to realize is that these are products that are being marketed and sold, and evidence that they actually reduce concussions is non-existent,” said Dr. Christopher Giza, the associated professor of pediatric neurology and neurosurgery at UCLA Health System and the California State Athletic Commissioner. “You have to be really skeptical about their claims.”

Even though their collisions may be less violent or less numerous than in the NFL, other professional leagues remain committed to concussion awareness.

NBA players suffered 28 concussions last year, according to Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a sports neurologist at the University of Michigan and director of the NBA’s concussion program.

More than half were caused by an elbow to the head, with the next biggest group caused by head-to-floor contact. In addition to baseline testing and player education, the NBA trains its physicians and athletic trainers every year.

“Every concussion that happens in the league, I’m involved in in some level directly,” he said.

The NHL has been a leader in concussion awareness. It put in place an education program in 1997 and was the first league to install baseline testing.

Concussion numbers in the NHL have leveled out recently, a credit to the league’s education programs, said Dr. Ruben Echemendia, chairman of the NHL’s concussion working group.

All agreed that concussions are a serious health risk but believe there is reason for optimism. McKee thinks analyzing genetic susceptibility will eventually be a way of assessing risks for individuals.

Dodick hopes the symposium will help with concussion awareness and education.

“Many of the disabled professional athletes that I see, like the 32-year-old with two small children who can’t function three years after they had to quit the game, these (situations) are utterly preventable,” he said. “Almost every one is utterly preventable.”

Reach Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and follow her at Twitter.com/PaolaBoivin. Listen to her on “Big Guy on Sports” every Monday at 12:30 p.m. on XTRA Sports 910.

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